Federal agents hid in back of rental truck at start of raid outside LA Home Depot

LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. Border Patrol agents jumped out of the back of a rented box truck and made arrests Wednesday at a Los Angeles Home Depot store during an immigration raid that an agency official called “Operation Trojan Horse.”

The early morning raid near downtown LA came just days after a federal appeals court upheld a federal judge’s order blocking the Trump administration from conducting indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in Southern California.

“For those who thought immigration enforcement had stopped in Southern California, think again,” acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli posted on the social platform X after the raid. “The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the federal government.”

Messages were sent to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seeking details on the raid, including how many people were arrested. U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino reposted Fox News reports of Monday’s arrests on X, calling the action “Operation Trojan Horse.”

Photos on social media showed the moment the rear door of the rented Penske truck opened, revealing several uniformed agents with guns. A spokesperson for Penske Truck Rental said the company was looking into the use of its vehicles by federal officials, saying its regulations prohibit transporting people in truck cargo areas.

“The company was not made aware that its trucks would be used in today’s operation and did not authorize this,” spokesperson Randolph P. Ryerson said in an email. “Penske will reach out to DHS and reinforce its policy to avoid improper use of its vehicles in the future.”

Since June, the Los Angeles region has been a battleground in the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration strategy that spurred protests and the deployment of the National Guards and Marines for more than a month. Federal agents have rounded up immigrants without legal status to be in the U.S. from Home Depots, car washes, bus stops, and farms. Some U.S. citizens have also been detained.

Lupe Carrasco Cardona, an educator with Union del Barrio, said members of her advocacy group were conducting regular patrols at the Home Depot early Monday when they saw a Penske truck pull into the parking lot, advertising work to the day laborers there. Immigrant workers, some with legal status and others without, often wait in Home Depot parking lots to be hired for various day jobs.

“They opened the back, they hopped out and they started indiscriminately just grabbing people,” Cardona said.

Unmarked white vans with U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrived shortly after the truck to participate in the operation, Cardona said. The organization has identified three street vendors and four day laborers that were arrested, but they were still trying to account for others. Family members said one street vendor tried to show evidence of holding asylum before he was arrested, she said.

Last month, a federal judge temporarily blocked federal agents from using racial profiling to carry out indiscriminate arrests after the ACLU, Public Counsel and other advocacy groups sued over the practices. Attorneys for the government argued that the order hinders agents from carrying out immigration enforcement, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal on Friday upheld the order.

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has previously said that “enforcement operations are highly targeted.”

The National Day Laborer Organizing Network condemned Wednesday’s raid, calling targeted workers the backbone of the local economy.

“Today’s raid staged by agents in cowboy hats jumping out of a rented van with a TV crew in tow marks a dangerous escalation in the Trump Administration’s assault on immigrant communities, the courts, and the people of Los Angeles,” Pablo Alvarado, the group’s co-executive director, said in a statement.

Federal agents stage outside a Home Depot during an operation Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

People film federal agents during an operation outside a Home Depot Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A woman is detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents outside a Home Depot Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A woman is detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents outside a Home Depot Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

This image taken from video shows U.S. Border Patrol agents jumping out of a Penske box truck during an immigration raid at a Home Depot in Los Angeles, on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025. (FOX News/Matt Finn via AP)

This image taken from video shows U.S. Border Patrol agents jumping out of a Penske box truck during an immigration raid at a Home Depot in Los Angeles, on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025. (FOX News/Matt Finn via AP)

BEIJING (AP) — Breaking with the United States, Canada has agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday.

Carney made the announcement after two days of meetings with Chinese leaders. He said there would be an initial cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports to Canada, growing to 70,000 over five years. China will reduce its tariff on canola seeds, a major Canadian export, from about 84% to about 15%, he told reporters.

“It has been a historic and productive two days,” Carney said, speaking outside against the backdrop of a traditional pavilion and a frozen pond at a Beijing park. “We have to understand the differences between Canada and other countries, and focus our efforts to work together where we’re aligned.”

Earlier Friday, he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to improve relations between their two nations after years of acrimony.

Xi told Carney in a meeting at the Great Hall of the People that he is willing to continue working to improve ties, noting that talks have been underway on restoring and restarting cooperation since the two held an initial meeting in October on the sidelines of a regional economic conference in South Korea.

“It can be said that our meeting last year opened a new chapter in turning China–Canada relations toward improvement,” China's top leader said.

Carney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit China in eight years, said better relations would help improve a global governance system that he described as “under great strain.”

He called for a new relationship “adapted to new global realities” and cooperation in agriculture, energy and finance.

Those new realities reflect in large part the so-called America-first approach of U.S. President Donald Trump. The tariffs he has imposed have hit both the Canadian and Chinese economies. Carney, who has met with several leading Chinese companies in Beijing, said ahead of his trip that his government is focused on building an economy less reliant on the U.S. at what he called “a time of global trade disruption.”

A Canadian business owner in China called Carney's visit game-changing, saying it re-establishes dialogue, respect and a framework between the two nations.

“These three things we didn’t have,” said Jacob Cooke, the CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, which helps exporters navigate the Chinese market. “The parties were not talking for years.”

Canada had followed the U.S. in putting tariffs of 100% on EVs from China and 25% on steel and aluminum under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Carney’s predecessor.

China responded by imposing duties of 100% on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25% on pork and seafood. It added a 75.8% tariff on canola seeds last August. Collectively, the import taxes effectively closed the Chinese market to Canadian canola, an industry group has said. Overall, China's imports from Canada fell 10.4% last year to $41.7 billion, according to Chinese trade data.

China is hoping Trump’s pressure tactics on allies such as Canada will drive them to pursue a foreign policy that is less aligned with the United States. The U.S. president has suggested Canada could become America's 51st state.

Carney departs China on Saturday and visits Qatar on Sunday before attending the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland next week. He will meet business leaders and investors in Qatar to promote trade and investment, his office said.

Associated Press business writer Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, center, arrives to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, Pool)

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)